page_title: Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet
section_title: Marriage and family
hierarchical_section_title: Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet / Marriage and family
caption_attribution_description: Brant was visiting England with Guy Johnson at age 33 or 34 when Romney painted him in his London studio. Brant is shown wearing a white ruffled shirt, an Indian blanket, a silver gorget, a plumed headdress and carrying a tomahawk.
context_page_description: Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, was an Irish official of the British Empire. As a young man, Johnson moved to the Province of New York to manage an estate purchased by his uncle, Admiral Peter Warren, which was located amidst the Mohawk, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League. Johnson learned the Mohawk language and Iroquois customs, and was appointed the British agent to the Iroquois. Because of his success, he was appointed in 1756 as British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern colonies. Throughout his career as a British official among the Iroquois, Johnson combined personal business with official diplomacy, acquiring tens of thousands of acres of Native land and becoming very wealthy.
  Johnson commanded Iroquois and colonial militia forces during the French and Indian War, the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War in Europe. His role in the British victory at the Battle of Lake George in 1755 earned him a baronetcy; his capture of Fort Niagara from the French in 1759 brought him additional renown.
context_section_description: In his lifetime, Johnson gained a reputation as a man who had numerous children with several European and Native American women. At the time, men were not ostracised for having illegitimate children, as long as they could afford it and supported them. One 20th-century scholar estimated that Johnson had perhaps 100 illegitimate children, but the historian Francis Jennings argued that "there is no truth in wild stories that he slept with innumerable Mohawk women." In his will, Johnson acknowledged children by Catherine Weisenberg and Molly Brant, German and Mohawk, respectively, with whom he had long-term relationships. He implicitly acknowledged several other children by unnamed mothers.
  In 1739, shortly after arriving in America, William began a relationship with Catherine Weisenberg (c. 1723–1759), a German Electorate of the Palatinate immigrant. She originally came to the colonies as an indentured servant, but had run away, perhaps with the help of friends or relatives. According to tradition, she was working for another family near Warrensburgh when Johnson purchased the remainder of her indenture contract, perhaps initially to have her serve as his housekeeper. There is no record that the couple ever formally married,; Weisenberg was Johnson's common-law wife. The couple had three children, including daughters Nancy and Mary (Polly), and a son John, first christened under only Weisenberg's name at Fort Hunter. The senior Johnson later arranged for his son John to inherit his title and estates as John Johnson. A grandson of Sir William Johnson was the 3rd Baronet Sir Adam Gordon Johnson who was, through his mother Ann Watts, descendants of the Schuyler family, the Delancey family, and the Van Cortlandt family of British North America.
  At the same time, Johnson had a relationship with Elizabeth Brant, a Mohawk woman by whom he had three children: Keghneghtago or Brant (born in 1742), Thomas (1744) and Christian (1745); the latter two boys died in infancy. About 1750, Johnson had a son named Tagawirunta, also known as William of Canajoharie, by a Mohawk woman, possibly Margaret Brant, Elizabeth's younger sister. Johnson may have also been intimate with the sisters Susannah and Elizabeth Wormwood, and an Irish woman named Mary McGrath, by whom he appeared to have had a daughter named Mary. Mary, Keghneghtago (Brant), and Tagawirunta (William) received inheritances in Johnson's will.
  In 1759, Johnson began a common-law relationship with Molly Brant, a Mohawk woman who moved into Johnson Hall and lived with Johnson as his consort for the rest of his life. Molly was the older sister of Joseph Brant; her younger brother joined the household when he was young. Johnson's relationship with Molly gave him additional influence with the Mohawk. The couple had eight children, all of whom received land from Johnson in his will. A grandson of William Johnson and Molly Brant was William Johnson Kerr who married Elizabeth Brant a daughter of Joseph Brant and granddaughter of George Croghan.
caption: Joseph Brant
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